Agriculture: Healthy Soils Program: organic production.

The Cannella Environmental Farming Act of 1995 requires the Department of Food and Agriculture, in consultation with the Scientific Advisory Panel on Environmental Farming, to establish and oversee a Healthy Soils Program to seek to optimize climate benefits while supporting the economic viability of California agriculture by providing incentives, including loans, grants, research, and technical assistance, and educational materials and outreach to farmers whose management practices contribute to healthy soils and result in net long-term on-farm greenhouse gas benefits. Existing law authorizes the Healthy Soils Program to also include the funding of on-farm demonstration projects that further the goals of the program. Existing law requires the department, if it elects to fund those on-farm demonstration projects, to establish a technical advisory committee to review those applications for scientific validity and the proposed project's potential to achieve greenhouse gas benefits.